Madden 12's "letter to the fans" in Review (after game 3 in franchise mode) - mirrored32's Blog

mirrored32's Blog

Madden 12's "letter to the fans" in Review (after game 3 in franchise mode)

Posted on September 6, 2011 at 01:50 AM.

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What is the objective of the Madden franchise?

I have to ask this question due to the worry of what it really is. I have been playing Madden since 1995. A lot has changed since then. New features, new graphics, deeper gameplay, better game systems, new sounds, and exclusive licenses.

So the question is what is the direction that the creators of Madden have for Madden?

After playing Madden 12 for sometime now, I have a sigh and disappointment in my feeling. Why? it has been the game with the letter to the fans that recognized 'franchise mode' is important. (my favorite feature of madden for years). Well the features are in the game right?

Yes (sort of)

The team the creates Madden, thank you! I am very thankful for your hard work, though i fear there has to be some miscommunication going on here. I feel the great divide of love for Madden and dare I say Hate, lets call it, major frustration for constructive criticism reasons. has specific points that lead to lack of directions. Let me explain.

The features from the letter to the fans

*expanded rosters and cuts days

does it work as stated? yes.

there are expanded rosters and there are cut days. It feels fun to have as you start your franchise. I have only gotten into the first year in franchise. But this initial experience is cool.

* all new rookie scouting system

does it work as stated? yes.

new rookie scouting is very evident in Madden12. Though i feel it is kinda simplistic, though it makes sense and is better then years previous.

*all new free agent bidding feature

does it work as stated? yes.

just look on you tube for the videos on this. some will love it others hate it. why? really a matter of taste. but in the spirit of gameplay i feel it gives the fast paced think quick to the game that i like. A matter of personal taste it works, but i like it.

*more then 20 different player roles

does it work as stated? not sure. leaves quite a bit to wonder how it works.

haven't gotten to far into the game to know, but in my third week with the Packers It was cool to see that players have roles. Older players now mentor, or at least some do, and it makes it worth their stay on the team for the reason, in theory. I know nothing what the real benefits are, there is no exacting stat tell of what they do as mentors but ok. it states

"... increasing awareness and play recognition for the player�s teammates at his position."

how much? when? is it worth keeping this person on the staff? will it help them in progression in the long run? or just a insignificant bump during their stay on the team? and when they leave the players in those positions didn't benefit in the long run?

there really is no talk or understanding how they REALLY effect the team. can't say. the idea of this is great, how it really works I don't know. but other roles state a way you can USE them correctly. such as:

Shutdown Corner: This role means that this player is valued by their franchise as someone who can shutdown any WR in the NFL. It does have an in-game impact, positive for the player with the role and negative for the opposing WR and QB.

* hot and cold streaks

does it work as stated? Yes, though again the direct impact i can't quite see.

it seems quick. meaning during a game a player can get hot or cold and then nothing and then . . .how does it really help or hinder the player? As i think of how the broadcast booth speaks of hot and cold streaks in real games is that the player isn't play to their potential or how the have achieved in the past or they are in a hot streak in that they are out doing their expected rate of production. how this works in the game in relation to that i am not sure.

again the confusion is in the actual implementation of the feature. glad they have it, just don't know how it really works making it confusing and unsure what it really does.

* ability to change user controlled team

does it work as stated? don't know yet. haven't gotten to the end of the season to know.

Yes. Though you can't move in an out of a team during a year, you can have multiple player franchise offline again!

*trade future draft picks

does it work as stated? don't know haven't gotten to the point of using it yet.

there are videos on this, but this was a big one for people. future logic. does it work well? don't know. hope it does.

*practice mode

does it work as stated? yes. it is a practice mode. what does it do? well the idea i think is that if you have rookies you didn't' scout you can play them in a practice mode to get an idea at least how they will play.

*realistic injury frequency

does it work as stated? maybe.

so far i have seen injuries in preseason games for long periods and a few short ones. what is realistic? unfortunately what ACTUALLY might be realistic may not be what the end user wants. what is fun and gameplay worthy in relation to a real world truth is really how I want it. So realistic? not sure. I don't' like how the presentation handles this feature. NCAA football i feel does a better job. I always feel like i see a player go dow on a play and then 'poof' i don't know if the player is actually hurt or not. no commentary or visual statement to say so. just a few plays later stating 'oh by the way, your player is hurt whom do you want to substitute in'. OH so my player was out. hitting pause to see if what you say in a animation of a hurt player REALLY was a hurt player sucks. NCAA football does a better job IMO of handing this.

the game makes it way to easy to just hit a button to pass over the cut scenes of injuries. this lowers the impact of a serious injury or one you want the impact to know whom it was and time to think of strategies to fill the gap so to say. It would be nice of Madden would prevent button passing over when there are injuries. though it slows down the game, perhaps a feature to which the user can turn on or off in blocking button pass over cut scenes.

*realistic injured reserve

does it work as stated? no hands on proof yet. I haven't had to put anyone on IR.

the point of this is that years previous IR never worked at all. you use it and it did nothing for you. just making it so you can't use the player and they still took up a spot. the whole point of a IR in the first place. this in previous years has been a point to my main point, how if a feature doesn't work to not put it in the game then. it speaks of laziness and un polish unkept game creation. feels junky.

so for this year, it would seem they have finally addressed this. should we be happy? yes! but perhaps more with a finally. If EA didn't want people complaining so loud perhaps features that didn't work in the past should have been REMOVED until they are working 100% before releasing them to the public. this is why people get very angry.

*retuned simulation stats

does it work as stated? not sure.

This matters to a lot of people. some because it greatly affects the awards per year. Though this year it would seem even the awards code has been tweaked. So i can't say what this works better or not.

*import draft class tuning

does it work as stated? NO.

my experience is it doesn't even take the NCAA draft class import. This is a key reason I complain hard to EA about Madden. This is what makes a black eye for them. releasing features they hype and they don't' even work on release. then in hopes that they patch it. if they do it could be weeks before it is patched.

deal breaker? maybe.

see my other post http://www.operationsports.com/mirrored32/blog/13423-madden-12-edit-players-ea-giving-back-control-to-the-fans-but-how-much/

every year i buy NCAA football ($60) and Madden ($60) because i love to create players and have them played in NCAA and then hope to make the draft to be imported in. great feature that has been in most all of the madden previous years. Though the tuning in previous years has been argued, this year, the feature simply doesn't work.

this is where we can argue, is it broke. broke means it simply doesn't work. buggy means it works
'some of the time'. well in my experience IT DOESN'T WORK.

This In My Opinon (IMO) is the big black eye of EA. Every year it seems they have a big black eye of a highly touted feature and on release it simply doesn't work. What does that mean? it means false advertising. Only if they don't fix it. and unfortunately I have seen this behavior from them before. So i can ONLY HOPE they fix it this year. If they don't, it will finally be my final straw. I can't handle betting on features with EA. their marketing department is amazing and yet they can't fill the words any better then George Bush's "No New Taxes" speech.

* 30 all new draft classes

does it work as intended? not sure what this means. no experience in it yet that i know of. maybe.

new draft classes? what they are manually made? wow. why can't EA create a semi randomized draft classes? i tried to import the NCAA draft class and it says it took but it is a generic draft class and i am not sure. i suspect this is 'random' but then I haven't had to try a new franchise. I really don't care unless i was to start another franchise again. I will due to my friends coming over. So will check to see if it is the SAME draft class. if it is. then wow.

but back to the point. even if it is manually made draft classes they didn't state anything other then new draft classes. so i guess if they are 'new' even if manually created' it is as stated.

* realistic player profiles

does it work as stated? yes.

there are no longer new players with cartoon looking profiles. players without profiles are dark silhouettes. So it is as stated.

though i wonder how long before i start seeing the same profile for different players.

* progression tuning

does it work as intended? not sure yet. haven't gotten there.

what i did notice is that i have boosted stats on the packers. I suspect from a coach. though i can't see where my coach stats are and how they benefit me or if i can fire or rehire, so i don't' know where they come from. again a lack of communication on how this feature works.

* franchise mode dynamic player performance

does it work as intended? yes, though it could better be user interfaced.

there is a lot of ups and downs for players per play! in my franchise i have seen the players alter in their performance via the pause menu a lot. though it is quite annoying to have to pause to get to the this feature. sometimes the jaggy commentary speaks of QB's that are rattled and are trigger happy. so yeah it works. could be tuned but great feature as far as i am concerned. again though i worry next year it may magically disappear. consistency from year to year for features are always like a new rookies on a team, he may or may not be there at the end of the year.

* all new team resign logic

does this work as intended? it appears so.

from week to week i see the status bar when i advance or the depth chart and roster management improving rosters. so there is a bit more time taken per week now as the AI does its thing. though i haven't experience it full on yet. first year.

* all new cut dead weight logic

does it work as intended? not sure.

the point as i understand it is when it needs to make room it will 'logically' and a bit more 'human and football logically' do so.I haven't gotten to the point to see it work this new feature in full yet, but I am sure i will see it work. how well? not sure yet.

* all new salary system

does it work as intended? yeah. at least from my minimal experience in it.

i have signed FA for ONE YEAR for decent money!! not ridiculous cost! so that is cool. though i don't' know how the actually signing is. will a player whom is a STAR so to say want star money? i do understand from others that in signing draft picks this plays a part now. a first round draft pick and a later round draft pick logic of signing is different.

I don't have any experience of this yet.

* retuned player retirements

does it work as intended? don't' know.

haven't experienced this yet either. i have seen images from youtube of players retiring at different ages. though it was always hilarious that Brett Favre in the past would always retire right away in Madden when he would last for YEARS in real life. I would hope this feature is a bit more random. some players may Jeff George themselves and others may Barry Sanders themselves if you get me. I can only hope at this point.

* retuned player award logic

does it work as intended? not sure.

haven't gotten far enough to know. really don't' have much to say on this yet.

* all new player portraits for draft rookies

work as intended? yes but isn't this the same as new player profiles?

this really isn't a NEW feature in the list. i feel like it was a rewording of the same thing. new draft class portraits and new portraits. same thing. see previous talk of new portraits. shouldn't have been listed twice. but EA's marketing team got happy i think. again feels sketchy in doing that.

*all new depth chart logic

does this work as intended? i suspect such but wasn't this in Madden 11?

I know last yearn madden 11 it would seem to me that this was already tweaked. teams seem to adjust their depth charts and changes their strategies depending on players on their teams. so not sure what this means. new how? again, no details, can't say.

*edit players

does this work as intended? Yes and Yes and no.

why two yes's? well it is a bit vague to say you can edit players. I could always edit players in Madden's. Though I would say over the years there were parts you couldn't edit (height weight college, years pro). well lets break this one down a bit in what i think they mean and what can be possible by this vauge statement.

you can edit players with a ON/OFF section turned on in FRACHISE MODE. so you can edit players after you create a franchise mode. NCAA Football has this as well. good idea. why not? why take it away from those whom want to edit in the middle.for the hard core your can turn it off. so great idea!

THOUGH. . .

if you CAP a player you still can't delete a player after creation. you can't edit (height, college, years pro, etc) which still baffles me. so NO

as well. so the Vauge statement gets a 'nice marketing scheme EA' sticker to it.

* all new coaching impact

does this work as stated? yes.

there is something going on! i have seen several of my stats on the Packers have boasts and negatives!! last year having coaches you could choose at the end of the year which ones with bonuses could boast your team. now coaches have positives and negatives when you get them.

So yeah. though your can't see a 'attribute' page for your coaches like your players, you can't even sign or fire them. so yeah you get your bonuses and negatives to your team and yet your an't change that before you start a franchise. bummer.

* all new interface

yeah new arrangement. less 'shinny' and more direct. Nice. But isn't very intuitive. this has been highly blogged about already. i ams use you can see on here the reviews of this sketchy interface. Ea has never been great at this and this year, is no expection.

So here is the quick early jump in of the review of features promoted by EA. the big one that is the RED FLAG and or black eye for EA this year

*import draft class tuning

it simply is broken right now. or not working as intended. i would like to say temporarily not working but as every year, only the truth in time will tell if the team at EA decides to fix it. If they don't, you know then where you stand as a consumer. promoted features won't always work.